The Mist

Mrs. Carmody is the religious fanatic who functions as the novel’s primary antagonist. While the mist brings unknowable terrors that kill many characters, Mrs. Carmody’s threat is more distinct because it comes from a deeply human and knowable place. She is a local person, known to everyone in Bridgton as the slightly strange owner of an antique store. Unlike Brent, she is a part of the community, so much so that she gossips about local folklore. She knows the area as well as anyone and is known to the people who consider themselves community leaders. Her integration cannot be doubted. At the same time, she is not considered a threat. She is an amusement to people like David, who smirks at his wife’s stories about Mrs. Carmody’s latest stories or the products in her shop. Mrs. Carmody is known to everyone, which is why she becomes so dangerous.

After the mist descends, the people in the supermarket are forced to confront the terrible reality that they have no idea what is happening to them. The monsters that maim and kill them are unknown to science, come from an unknown place, and show no intention of leaving. The monster in the mist represents the unknown, while the people inside are left searching for an explanation. Mrs. Carmody is willing to provide that explanation. She views the mist as a sign of God and a signal of the Last Days. In her telling of events, the mist is the apocalypse, a punishment for the sins of humanity. At first, very few people listen to Mrs. Carmody. However, she continues to preach. Her insistence, her energy, and her sincerity begin to attract followers. Given the vacuum of information about the situation, the desperate people lack some kind of reasoning. Mrs. Carmody has no evidence beyond her own conviction, but this is more than anyone else has to offer. Suddenly, the strange, amusing woman is the only person who can explain a terrible event. Mrs. Carmody is presented with a peculiar circumstance, and the strangeness of her character means that people become naturally credulous.

Mrs. Carmody welcomes her followers. Her idea becomes increasingly fanatic, though her instructions suggest that she is simply enacting a personal vendetta. Demanding a blood sacrifice to appease God, she eventually decides that Billy and Amanda are the people who need to be sacrificed. She refers to Amanda as a possession of David; without mentioning David at all, she uses the demand for sacrifices to kill his child and his lover: Mrs. Carmody weaponizes the religious fanaticism of her followers to take revenge against a person who doubts her. Amid the confusion, Ollie shoots Mrs. Carmody in the chest. Her death reveals the depths of her conviction. She refuses to admit any error and uses her dying breath to curse David and his friends. Even if the monsters outside the supermarket can inflict physical violence on David, they can never hope to match the emotional violence caused by the old woman and her fanatical followers. This blend of physical and emotional threat means that the novel’s primary antagonist is not the monsters in the mist but the violent, seemingly innocent member of the Bridgton community who seizes power for herself in a desperate moment.

Brent Norton is David’s neighbor and one of the early antagonists of the novel. David and Brent have a history, having entered a legal dispute regarding the property line between their homes. In the storm’s wake, David feels genuine sympathy for Brent. Not only has Brent’s beloved classic car been crushed by a tree, but he also recognizes the grief Brent still feels after the death of his wife. This sympathy prefigures David’s grief as he comes to terms with Steff’s likely death. While David can sympathize with Brent, Brent cannot sympathize with David. Even after David drives Brent to the supermarket in Bridgton and tries to help him clean up after the storm, Brent never sees David as a friend he can trust. He accuses David of trying to play a prank on him, refusing to believe that a monster could be lurking outside in the mist.

This inability to trust is endemic to Brent’s character. After the death of his wife, the loss of his car, and the constant feeling that he is an outsider in Bridgton, Brent embraces his isolation. He refuses all offers of friendship and becomes the leader of a group of non-believers that David dubs the Flat-Earthers. This small band of outsiders follows Brent out of the supermarket. All of them are killed. In this sense, Brent again functions as a mirror to David’s experiences. While Brent refuses to trust people and leads his group to death, David forms close allies and successfully leads his group to the car. David and his group may not survive, but their trust in each other gives them a better chance of survival than Brent’s group. As such, Brent becomes an illustration of why David’s skills as a leader are beneficial and admirable. Brent leads by example but provides an example of none of the skills that will help him survive the situation at hand.

Ollie Weeks is the assistant manager at the supermarket who treads a fine line between terror and responsibility. His role in the store is complicated, as he is not the foremost authority, nor is he at the bottom of the chain of command. Ollie has responsibilities, but he always follows the instructions of others, allowing him only a limited agency to run the store. When the mist descends, and the people become trapped inside, Ollie struggles with this responsibly. He is scared, and his immediate instinct is to drink beer. He sheds any sense of responsibility and gives himself up to the alcohol, numbing his thoughts so as not to ponder the terrors lurking outside his store. Though he spends most of the story drinking beer, Ollie can never give himself entirely over to drunkenness. Much to his annoyance, he remains relatively sober even after two days of drinking. The terror he feels and the responsibility he has abandoned weigh heavily upon him, keeping him sober in a difficult moment.

As the story progresses, Ollie comes to terms with his responsibility. While the store manager cannot think about anything other than shoplifting or store policy, Ollie embraces the practical reality of his situation. He allies with David to try to fix the generator and hide the bodies of the young soldiers who die by suicide, taking on the trauma of knowing the truth without wanting to scare the other people trapped in the supermarket. He is also aware that he is the only trained marksman in the group, so he takes Amanda’s gun and the responsibility it entails. Ollie accepts that he is the only person who knows how to use the weapon, even though he may not want to deal with the responsibility. Ultimately, Ollie proves his mettle. He realizes that Mrs. Carmody wants to sacrifice Billy and Amanda. He shoots her in the chest and allows his friends to escape. Ollie then leads the charge into the parking lot, where the monster attacks him. He kills Mrs. Carmody and provides a distraction that allows others to escape, taking on the ultimate responsibility and paying with his life. The mild-mannered frightened Ollie of the opening chapters is transformed into a serious, committed figure who sacrifices himself to save others.